CCMH 504 Week 4 Adolescence and Identity Formation Example

Gabriela at Fifteen: Identity, Ethnic Belonging and Risk When a Teenager Becomes Her Grandmother's Helper

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

CCMH/504: Individual and Family Development Across the Life Span

Week 4 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The counseling center, the family and all details are composites written for a model paper; theories and research findings come from the sources listed.

Gabriela Ortega is fifteen. Before this year, she was an honor student who talked about becoming a pediatric nurse. Since her grandmother's stroke, she has stopped turning in homework, spends afternoons helping her grandmother with speech and arm exercises and has twice left school at lunch with friends who are seventeen and have cars. Her parents describe her as "a different girl." This paper reads her changes through theories of adolescent identity and risk.

Identity Statuses

Marcia (1966) translated Erikson's idea of an adolescent identity crisis into something that could be measured. Using a semistructured interview about occupation, religion and political beliefs with college men, he classified young people by two features: whether they had gone through a period of actively considering alternatives and whether they had made firm commitments. Those who had explored and committed showed identity achievement; those exploring without commitment were in moratorium; those committed without exploration, usually to choices handed to them, showed foreclosure; and those neither exploring nor committed showed identity diffusion. In his study, young men with achieved identities performed best on a demanding task under stress.

Where Gabriela Stands

Before the stroke, Gabriela's plan to become a nurse came from her own interest and a summer volunteering at a children's clinic, which suggests early exploration toward achievement. Now she says, "My family needs me. School can wait." That statement may reflect a sudden commitment to a family caregiver role without exploring how it fits with her other goals, a form of foreclosure brought on by crisis rather than choice. At the same time, her time with older friends may be exploration of a different self, freer and less burdened. Identity statuses describe a period, not a permanent label, and Gabriela seems pulled in two directions at once.

Ethnic Identity

Phinney (1990) reviewed research on ethnic identity in adolescents and adults. She described components including self-identification as a group member, a sense of belonging, attitudes toward one's group and involvement in its language and practices. Drawing on Marcia's approach, she proposed that ethnic identity develops from an unexamined stage, through a period of exploration, to an achieved, secure sense of one's ethnicity, and she noted that ethnic identity is especially salient for members of minority groups.

Since her grandmother moved in, Gabriela has started speaking more Spanish, asking about her grandmother's childhood in Sonora and cooking her grandmother's recipes. She told me, "I didn't really know who she was before." This looks like ethnic identity exploration, a healthy development that her caregiving has made possible.

Caring for her grandmother may be pulling Gabriela off one path and onto a richer sense of who she is.

Risk in Adolescence

Steinberg (2008) proposed a social neuroscience model of adolescent risk-taking. Around puberty, changes in the brain's socioemotional system increase sensitivity to rewards, especially social rewards, while the cognitive control system that supports self-regulation matures gradually into the mid-twenties. This gap makes mid-adolescence a time of heightened risk, especially in the presence of peers, who amplify the appeal of rewards. Steinberg noted that adolescents can reason about risk as well as adults in calm conditions, but emotionally charged, peer-filled situations tip the balance.

Gabriela's trips off campus with older friends who drive fit this pattern. She knows skipping is risky; in the moment, with friends offering an escape from a heavy home, the reward wins. The concern is not that she is reckless by nature but that her situation pairs high stress with peer opportunities.

What Gabriela Wants

In our first individual session, I asked Gabriela what she wanted. She said she still wants to be a nurse but feels guilty doing homework while her grandmother struggles. She said her friends "make me forget for a while." She did not want her parents to know about skipping. I explained the limits of confidentiality: what she says remains between us except when her safety or someone else's is at stake, and she would hear from me first before anything was shared.

Family Roles and Culture

In many Mexican American families, older daughters take on caregiving responsibilities, and Gabriela's help is valued. Her parents had not realized she was sacrificing school. In a joint session, Gabriela said she wanted to keep helping her grandmother. Her parents said they were proud of her and did not want her grades to fall. Together they agreed she would do exercises with her grandmother three afternoons a week, after homework, and that her father, now home, would cover the other days.

Counseling Approach

My approach will respect her autonomy while addressing risk. Individual sessions will explore her goals, including nursing, which her caregiving experience may strengthen. We will problem solve around stress, identifying other ways to feel relief, such as joining a club or spending time with friends after school rather than during it. If she agrees, I will put her in touch with her school counselor about catching up on missing work.

The Older Friends

I did not ask Gabriela to give up her older friends, which would likely have pushed her closer to them. Instead, I asked what she liked about them. She said they treat her like an adult and do not ask about her family. That answer suggests the friendships meet a real need for autonomy and a break from caregiving. Our plan focuses on meeting that need in safer ways, such as seeing those friends on weekends rather than during school and finding activities where she is treated as capable, like the hospital volunteer program she asked about.

Nico, Sofia and Gabriela Compared

The three Ortega children are responding to the same family crisis according to their developmental moments. Sofia, three, protests separation; Nico, eight, regresses and withdraws as his sense of competence wavers; Gabriela, fifteen, reworks her identity and seeks escape with peers. Seeing the pattern helps the parents understand that none of their children is simply misbehaving.

Monitoring Safety

I will continue to ask about skipping, substance use, riding with new drivers and mood. If she disclosed a serious safety risk, I would discuss with her how to involve her parents. So far, her risks seem moderate and connected to stress rather than to deeper problems.

Nursing, Revisited

Gabriela's caregiving might deepen her interest in nursing rather than end it. She now knows what a stroke does to speech and movement, has watched physical and speech therapists work and has seen how much difference patient encouragement makes. In one session she asked how she could volunteer at the hospital's rehabilitation unit. Connecting her caregiving to her own goals could turn a role that feels like a detour into a step toward the future she wants.

Conclusion

Gabriela's changes reflect identity work under pressure: a possible foreclosure into caregiving, healthy ethnic identity exploration and peer-driven risk heightened by stress. Counseling that hears her goals, works with her family's values and reduces risky situations can help her keep both her family role and her future.

References

Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego-identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3(5), 551-558. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0023281

Phinney, J. S. (1990). Ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: Review of research. Psychological Bulletin, 108(3), 499-514. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.3.499

Steinberg, L. (2008). A social neuroscience perspective on adolescent risk-taking. Developmental Review, 28(1), 78-106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2007.08.002